Black powder, muzzle-loading firearms have recently seen a resurgence in popularity. Muzzle-loading firearms are essentially primitive rifles, shotguns, or pistols, based on designs used during the early days of America and lacking the effective range of more modem center fire rifles and the speed of reloading available to cartridge firearms. Typically, modern muzzle-loaders have a caplock design, although flintlocks are in use, as well. The caplock design includes a hammer that swings into a percussion cap which contains an explosive fulminate of mercury. The percussion cap rests on a nipple through which the spark travels to reach the main charge in the barrel. The most modem type of muzzleloader is an in-line caplock (having a hammer, nipple and cap in-line with the barrel) that provides more effective discharge. For example, break-action muzzle-loading rifles are one popular design, wherein a breech plug is positioned in a breech (breech plug receiver) that is accessible when the firearm is opened at the breech. The breech plug may include a primer cap receiver (e.g., a nipple) and the spark generated by striking the primer cap is carried to a propellant and shot that has been muzzle-loaded in the barrel. The break-action design of such muzzle-loading rifles facilitates an in-line design for a more effective discharge and facilitates easier maintenance (e.g., the breech plug can be removed to allow end to end access to the barrel for cleaning).
During loading of a muzzle-loading firearm, a charge, a sabot or patch (wad), if necessary, and a projectile, in that order, are loaded through the discharging end of the barrel. The contents are typically packed toward the breech end of the firearm using a ramrod to ensure a consistent loading and seating pressure of the propellant and the projectile. Seating reduces the chances of an inadvertent blow up of the barrel of the firearm because of an air gap formed between the propellant and the projectile. The loading process for muzzle-loading firearms is slow and tedious.
Additionally, the imprecision of the loading process can present danger to the user. Because the powder, projectile and percussion cap are separately loaded for each shot and are not subject to mechanical assembly in a cartridge, muzzle-loading firearms are particularly vulnerable to conditions known as hangfire or misfire where the gun does not discharge immediately upon the trigger being pulled. A misfire occurs when the gun does not fire at all. A hangfire occurs when the cap or flint successfully flames and sends sparks toward the main charge, but the main charge does not ignite for a few seconds after the trigger is pulled. A hangfire can be particularly dangerous because the user may position the gun unsafely, thinking the gun has misfired, prior to it discharging.
Due to such problems with muzzle-loading firearms, new loading technologies and methods are needed.